Information systems in the 21st century: culture, agility and big data

In the past decade, culture has been a focus of several studies in the information systems (IS) field. While the literature on the role of culture in information systems is growing, due to the breadth of the concept of culture, the research involving culture remains challenging. The main challenge pertains to the definition of culture which is evidenced by the presence of more than 150 definitions of culture in literature, yet there is no consensus on one. Another challenge is the existence of various cultural frameworks, and consequently the presence of multiple measures of culture. However, despite the challenges associated with the lack of agreement on the definition of culture and the existence of various measures of culture, the notion of culture is considered a critical factor to understand the national, organizational, and individual-level behaviors in IS and other business disciplines. This dissertation consists of three studies where each study investigates the role of culture in three different information systems-related contexts. The first study focusses on two national cultures, Indian and the United States, and investigates if deception can be detected across cultures, especially when the communication between individuals is mediated by computers. The second study investigates the relationship between different forms of organizational culture (group, developmental, rational, and hierarchical) and the implementation of agile practices, which in turn may lead to organizational creativity. The third study explores the role of data-driven decision making culture, which is defined as a culture in which decisions are made based on data rather than on the beliefs or opinions of organizational members, in creating a firm-specific big data capability.